SYNOPSIS

VERSION

DESCRIPTION

What is UMMF?

UMMF is an open-source implementation of a UML Meta-meta-model, for the purposes of reifying UML meta-model implementations and to provide a platform for building flexible UML transformation tools.

It is written in Perl and provides an almost complete specification of the UML 1.5 meta-model in a human and machine-readable meta-meta-model description language.

The meta-meta-model description is used to generate implementations of the UML meta-model in XMI, Perl and Java and other languages. Thus, one specification of the meta-model can generate meta-model implementations in many programming languages. Once a programming language has been targeted with an exporter, code can be generated for UML meta-models and other models.

Why UMMF?

The goal of UMMF is processing of UML models and meta-models in a variety of implementation languages for the purpose of transforming UML models.

UMMF is self-hosting; for example: the Perl UMMF:UML::MetaModel package is generated by bootstrapping from the meta-meta-model. The meta-meta-model is specified with the same specification as the meta-model.

Models can be imported from popular UML editors via XMI 1.0 and 1.2. Meta-models and models can currently exported to XMI 1.2.

Code generated from UML models by UMMF is reflective; models can reflect on their own meta-models. For example, the code exporters generate a __classifier() method for each Class that will return the meta-model Classifier object for the model object.

Many inexpensive UML editors have inflexible or non-existant code generation tools. Generating code using XSLT on XMI is an adventure into the pain of a W3C-sponsored hell.

UMMF allows you to control how your Model will be translated into code; add your special archtectural or environmental support without relying on third-party proprietary tools!

UMMF can provide a base UML meta-model implementation for other UML tools.

What does UMMF do?

UMMF transforms UML models to simplify code generation; for example:

Generate Interfaces for all Classes.

Transform Classes with multiple inheritance to single inheritance using Interfaces.

Support for Tangram, the pure-Perl, orthogonal, object-relational persistence mapping layer. This functionality is out of beta!

What doesn't UMMF do?

As of 2003/09/31:

Does not support model reflection in Java.

Does not correctly propagate UML documentation into template-generated code documentation (embedded POD). This is implemented, but is not working correctly.

Where can I get UMMF?

The SourceForge site, http://sourceforge.net/projects/ummf/ or a pre-built version from CPAN. You may want to check the CVS repository for the latests changes; point your browser at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/ummf/ummf/1.1/.

More information is available at http://ummf.umleta.com/

What does UMMF need?

As of 2004/03/30, UMMF requires:

Perl 5.6.1 (or later?)

CPAN libnet 1.16 (or later)

CPAN libxml-perl 0.07 (or later)

CPAN Template 2.10 (or later)

CPAN Set::Object 1.05 (or later)

CPAN XML::Writer 0.4 (or later)

CPAN XML::Parser 2.31 (or later)

CPAN XML::DOM 1.42 (or later)

CPAN Archive::Zip 1.06 (or later) (for .zargo and .zuml file support)

CPAN Scalar::Util 1.13 (or later)

CPAN Devel::StackTrace 1.03 (or later)

CPAN Class::Multimethods 1.70 (or later)

CPAN YAML

Bootstrapping dependencies:

POSIX shell. (bin/sh)

GNU make. (If you're stuck on Windoze, cygwin saves the day :)

How do I use UMMF?

See "perldoc bin/ummf.pl"

See other POD or see HTML documentation built in doc/html/index.html. (On-line version doc/html/index.html)

See "ummf/example/ex*"

See "ummf/test/*.pl"

How do I build (bootstrap) UMMF?

1. Make sure Perl is in your PATH.

2. tar -zxvf ummf-*.tar.gz

3. cd ummf-*

4. If you do not have all the prerequise modules already installed:

perl sbin/ummf_install.pl

5. make bootstrap-simple

This will build the UML meta-model classes in gen/perl and gen/java.

6. make

This will build the bin, gen/perl and doc/html directories.

What mailing lists are available for UMMF?

UMMF-announce@lists.sourceforge.net

Low-volume list for new releases and other announcements.

UMMF-user@lists.sourceforge.net

List for UMMF user issues, problems and support (may become high-volume)

UMMF-devl@lists.sourceforge.net

Low-volume list for UMMF developers only.

UMMF-cvs@lists.sourceforge.net

CVS notifications (may become high-volume)

COMPATABILITY

UMMF 1.x is not namespace compatable with UMMF 0.x.

However, most code that used UML metamodel packages named "UMMF::UML::MetaModel::..." will now work with "UMMF::UML1_5::..".

Most other modules under "UMMF::UML::..." moved to "UMMF::Core::..." or "UMMF::Boot::...".

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

UMMF_BOOTSTRAPPING

Defined to be true during bootstrapping into gen/perl.

UMMF_RESOURCE_PATH

List of ":"-separated paths to search for UMMF resources. If you are using the compiled CPAN distribution, you must include the "data" directory from the distribution in this variable, or you can copy the "data" directory to the directory named "UMMF" where "UMMF.pm" was installed by make install.